How long are regiments active

[Demus Ragnok]

My only background reading on the guard has been the current and 5th edition codicies.

 

I have the impression that "most" regiment are not continual. With the exception of the Vostroyans.

 

My question is, would it be unusual for a regiment (armored in this case) to have a long running history?

 

Long as in thousands of years.

[Galron]

Yes. Basically a regiment is created and sent out. As it takes losses it might get reinforcements if it happens to be relatively close to its home planet or it might be combined with a similar regiment from a different founding. In rare cases a regiment might be combined with a completely different type of regiment. Eventually after a long time a ground down regiment is deemed too damaged to be combat effective and not worth the effort of reinforcing it so the few survivors of regiments are allowed to settle newly conquered worlds and act as protectors of the new colony.  In this case, they retire the colors and eventually a new founding will be formed from the original planet and the colors will be brought active again thus why you have some regiments with histories spanning thousands of years. Some illustrious or infamous regiments very possibly will not be reactivated for better or for worse.

[Stofficus]

As above, it is extremely rare for regiments to receive continuous reinforcements - the logistical nightmare of transporting troops across the galaxy usually isn't worth it. Vostroyans are the exception to the rule, and to a lesser extent, the Death Korps who are unique in that rather than raising individual regiments, they raise armies at a time which are continuously supplanted by new regiments as attrition mounts, so while the regiments cycle out of active use, the "Korps" can remain active for a considerable length of time (which for the Death Korps a long run is about 12 years or so, their special character in IA12 is mentioned as having commanded his specific Korps for an unprecedented 11 years). The Armageddon Steel Legion probably also has very long lasting active regiments owing to Armageddon's particular status, as would other hotly contested worlds where their IG regiments wouldn't be leaving the system on a regular basis. 

 

So, multigenerational regiments are rare in active service, and the endurance of an active regiment can vary enormously based on its role, warzones and general approach to warfare. Cadians, I'd imagine, stay active for longer owing to their expertise and generally less wasteful use of manpower, with Valhallans having a very short active lifespan, notorious for their use of human wave tactics in excess of the Korps even. 

[WarriorFish]

There's no shelf life on a regiment, but in practice it will change as mentioned as they may be merged, or retired on the completion of their mission (e.g. settling rights) or destroyed. That's not to say you can't have your regiment being continuous as there is precedent. You can also have regiments recreated as a newly raised army.

 

So unusual yes, but not impossible ;)

[Pudelhund]

As mentioned above, I think it would be rare for the actual metaphysical regiment to have a consistent order of battle, but I don't see any particular reason why two different forces of units at different times be organized in the pattern/name of the same regimental legacy.  For instance, the Bolterian 14th Light Infantry may campaign for a long time and many of its members may die and some others may live long enough to colonize a distant planet (or lucky ones serving near their home may return if the journey isn't too difficult), but eventually the unit would be stretched and distorted and ultimately disbanded.  A new Bolterian 14th Light Infantry may be founded in honor of the previous founding with similar combat doctines and organization and continue the regimental legacy, but it's not like they're crusading Space Marines with a consistent force.  It's like how the 101st Airborne today is the successor to the 101st Airborne of WWII, but the makeup of the 101st Airborne today is totally different in lots of ways and doesn't have anything in common with the old one.

[Master Antaeus]

In the American armed forces (can't speak to any others), it is common for units to be retired as the needs of the service change.  The servicemembers in those units are retrained or get out.  Then, later, when standing up a new unit, sometimes they will give it an old unit designation.  For example, my unit started off as an evidence collection component for a military police Battalion.  They changed again to incorporate communications during Vietnam, were retired, then stood back up with a different designator reflecting both of those duties but with the original battalion with the same number, then broken up and retired again just as I was leaving.  Subsequently, when we were a Battalion (sort of) in 2005-06, our full guidon included a battle streamer from Pleiku province in Vietnam--an honor that was awarded when its (when I was there) current senior leadership were tiny, tiny babies.

 

Space Marines, do this, too.  In the 5th ed Codex, under the World Engine, the Astral Knights are stated to be the second chapter to bear that name. 

 

All that said, I'm not sure the AM would do this.  There is a (very large) room in the Imperial palace where the battle standard for every regiment ever wiped out fighting for the Emperor is planted, and as regimental numbers are ordinal, rather than ceremonial, I would think that regimental numbers would not be recycled.  Of course, the Departmento Munitorum makes mistakes all the time and wouldn't it be bizarre to find your regiment landing on a world only to discover their own regimental banner already enshrined in its last Imperial Cathedral, recounting the deeds of the Emperor's finest as they gave their last?

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

Anteus, do you have a source for that? I'd love to know where that comes from, so I can read it myself.

[Master Antaeus]

For which, sir?

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

Oh, the bit about AM numbering and the Banners. 

[Master Antaeus]

Alas, I must concede any claim to fact as I no longer have the books to reference. 

 

Upon reflection, even, though we are only given tiny glimpses of regiments raised from planets, a place like Necromunda, where even a common hive might have a billion people living just the upper levels and each hive cluster contains up to a dozen hives with around a thousand hive clusters must have a population of over a trillion.  Science fiction aside, you could raise a hundred thousand regiments of 1000 men each (a hundred million conscripts.. the mind reels).  How would you like to be part of the Necromundan 73,289th? Over successive generations, this would become highly impractical without recycling regimental numbers, so consider my original point withdrawn.

[WarriorFish]

There's no fixed size of a regiment, nor on how many regiments can or must be raised as part of a planet's tithe. As I've often said the scope for Guard background is so flexible that sometimes it feels like there's barely any restrictions at all! :D

[hendrik]

note that in the guard omnibus  gaunts ghosts get the honour of being allowed to get new recruits after the bloody hive battle (forgot the name of the planet). I believe this to occur quite often, if the regiment distinguished itself with honour. I think if a regiment is able to live through 20 years of continuous war of attrition (as that's what we do, even the most elite of us get thrown in the meat blender i can say you've done a pretty marvelous job!

[Galron]

Yeah, you could have a regiment of 1000 guys or a regiment of 20,000. Says that in one of the IG codices somewhere. One of the older ones since I haven't read the fluff in the new one.

[Stofficus]

If I recall correctly, the varying size is more to do with regiments are supposed to be roughly equal in power. I.e. an armoured regiment might only have 2000 troops in it, but they're all manning tanks, whereas to match that power in human wave tactics requires significantly more men. 

[SW1]

Just been flicking through the codex and page 9 answers a lot about raising a tithe. Looks like it's 10% of a worlds fighting force which gets tithed at a time in normal circumstances. However this can be much greater when there's a time of great peril. Regiment size can vary between three and twenty companies totalling between a couple of hundred to tens of thousands of troops.

[Ulrik_Ironfist]

Before the army went to the Modular BCT structure, a regiment was made up of 3 line Battalions and a headquarters Battalion, each battalion made up of 4 platoons, and each platoon containing about 36-40 men.

 

So that equates to roughly 144 - 160 men to a company, 576 - 640 men to a battalion, 2304 - 2560 to a regiment. An armored regiment might appear smaller, but in fact would have the same manning, as every one tank requires 3-4 men to operate (Driver, Gunner, Loader, Commander). 

 

At least that's what I remember, and what my math tells me.